Renault Arkana SUV coupe revealed: Successor to Duster/Captur?

Posted on August 29, 2018August 29, 2018 by CarToq Editor

Renault has just revealed its new flagship model, the Arkana SUV coupe. The vehicle is predominantly meant for the Russian market, and will make its show debut later this week at the Moscow International Auto Salon. The five seater SUV-ish coupe crossover will spearhead the company’s future model line-up. It’s based on the B-Zero platform that underpins the Renault Duster and Captur.

The car being shown now is probably a show car but the production version will be quite similar, albeit with some minor changes, like wider ORVMs. To give you a better picture on what an SUV coupe is, it refers to an SUV with a design similar to the BMW X6 or for that matter the Mahindra XUV Aero.

The five seater crossover is built on a modified platform of the Russian-market Captur (Kaptur in Russia). No technical specifications have been released as yet, neither have any images of interiors been made available. This hints towards either the car not being completely ready for launch, or that of the company wanting to keep things under wraps until the official launch.

With its edgy styling and sloping roofline, the Arkana looks fresh and a welcome change from all the compact SUV designs we’ve been seeing lately. How much that sloping headline will cost in terms of headroom is a thing to watch out for. Mechanical details remain under the wraps for now, but it’ll be safe to expect the Arkana to borrow its engines and gearboxes from the Renault Duster/Captur.

Talking about the exteriors, as mentioned earlier, the car looks good. The C-shaped full LED headlamps along with the chrome studded grille looks really nice. At the rear, dual exhaust tops on either side coupled with a full-width LED take the coolness quotient quite high. The Arkana rides on large 19-inch alloy wheels and has a pretty high ground clearance. In fact if you notice, it looks rather similar to the Captur, although much smarter. Talking of design, Renault’s design boss Laurens Van den Acker said the car strikes “a balance between the elegance of a sedan and the powerful stance of an SUV”. We agree.

Renault plans to bring the Arkana to Asian markets by 2019. Whether it will come to India is a question that is unanswered for now. However, Renault wouldn’t have much problem bringing the car here as it is based on the modified Renault Captur/Duster platform. Basically all the infrastructure for building this car is already here. It now just depends on what the company boffins decide.

On the flipside, designs like a sloping roofline affect practicality due to the lower headroom on offer, and this is one reason why this SUV is doubtful for India. The coming months will give us a hint on whether Renault has any plans of launching the Arkana in India.

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